The Nome Static, February 2014

With each new class of KNOM volunteers comes a new wave of energy and fresh ideas for how to make our mission even better. This year’s class of KNOM volunteers (2013-2014) is no different. In early January, first-year volunteer producer Tara Cicatello (pictured) debuted a new country show on our airwaves, AK Country. The program…

The later winter months in Western Alaska are made busy, each year, through the sled dog and snowmachine (or snowmobile) competitions that our listeners and community members follow so intently. We’re in the thick of race season, which means our entire mission is keeping extra busy. Last month, news director Laureli Kinneen had the opportunity…

The messages you see in grey boxes throughout our print newsletter (which you can download as a PDF) – and in all of our Static (newsletter) issues – are but a tiny sampling of KNOM’s massive library of “spots.” They’re brief radio messages, created in-house at KNOM, that we sprinkle into each broadcast hour, taking the place…

Pictured above is Alaska gubernatorial candidate Byron Mallott alongside KNOM’s news director Laureli Kinneen and general manager Ric Schmidt. Mallott has made history in recent months by becoming the first Alaska Native to declare a candidacy for governor and by receiving the official endorsement of a major political party (Mallott is running as a Democrat).…

With regards to weather, 2014 got off to a very strange start all throughout the United States: in Alaska as well as in the Lower 48, albeit for opposite reasons. In many places in the contiguous 48 states, a “polar vortex” weather pattern was causing abnormally frigid temperatures in early January, while in Alaska, Nome…

This month (in our February newsletter), we share reflections from Father Ross Tozzi: the parish priest of Nome’s St. Joseph Catholic Church, the president of KNOM’s board of directors, and a former KNOM volunteer. Fr. Ross shares what’s kept him coming back to Nome through the decades: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;…